Monday, January 28, 2008

In January 2007, I explored Bilbao, my last stop in Spain. The Guggenheim modern art museum was the perfect ending to an amazing three weeks in Spain. The structure, reminiscent of a boat, covered with titanium sheets as if a giant metallic fish with scales, was simply stunning. Frank Gehrig, the architect, is a definitely a genius. The only two straight lines in the building are the elevator and the floor. I tried to find another one and i didn't. Walking into the atrium one feels as if stepping into a galactic church. Before I went in, I walked around the building for a couple of hours just enjoying the sun, the park, the river boardwalk and taking pictures from different angles. Once inside, an incredible exhibit of modern art was awaiting. Installations, paintings, video, sculptures and such. Very conceptual post-modern stuff that in some cases did not make much sense to me, but I was most definitely impressed in the simplicity/creativity of most pieces. For instance: an installation where the artist took the slanted wooden leftovers from a frame shop (those triangular wooden ones) and put hundreds of them on the floor randomly, all shapes and sizes, standing up almost resembling a colorfully triangular city.

On January 10 I took a bus to Madrid where I met again with my friends Daryl and Michelle who were flying in from Morocco. I arrived in Madrid around 3 pm and a friend from madrid, Loida, was waiting for me. I had not been in the metro in Madrid so it was very kind of Loida to come pick me up to take me back to Cats hostel. Later that night the four of us went out and partied a bit on our last night in Madrid.

After some last minute shopping for Michelle, poster hunting for Daryl, and chilling at the hostel for me, we took the metro to theairport and flew back to cairo on January 11. We almost missed our flight as the Madrid airport is h u g e and we did not estimate the time to get to the gate very well. There was a long line to clear security and immigration. After that we had to take trains and walk probably a mile to get to our gate. I, not surprisingly, was asked many questions from the immigration official (racial profiling anyone? hahaha) so Daryl and Michelle decided to get ahead of me. The last passengers were boarding when I arrived to the gate running, Once on the plane we were laughing about the whole ordeal: Mario left behind in Madrid, hmmm sound like a good movie or novel hahahahah

Back in cairo. I am back to the routine of school during the week and exploring Cairo during the weekends. The first weekend we had Michelle's birthday party at my place. About 40 people came, it was lots of fun. This weekend 10 teachers from different schools went to Garbage City. This is a neighborhood at the foot of a hill where Coptic Christians, present for 19 centuries in Egypt (a small minority), have carved three amazing churches out of a rocky hill not far from central Cairo. Sadly, their only income comes from recycling much of the city's garbage. Going to Garbage City is heart breaking as you see people literally living in the trash. But when you walk around and you see the smiling and friendly faces of both the kids playing and the adults working, deep admiration for their resilience and attitude fills your heart.

Monday, January 7, 2008

We arrived in Madrid at 4 am on Dec 20th, 2007... we slept until 8 am in the common area of the hostel so we would not have to pay an extra night... the hostel is a restored Arab home with beautifully intricate geometric designed walls in red and blue with a fountain in the middle of the courtyard... after getting our beds in the dorm, Daryl, Michelle and i headed to the Prado museum... Velazquez, Goya, and many more Spanish painters and sculptors from the 16th - 17th century, were represented in a display of baroque and religious art... the best thing about it is that i got in for free with my international teacher card :-) my friends had to pay 9 euros...

on the 21st we walked all around the center of Madrid... narrow streets, ample boulevards, people shopping, beautiful architecture, history and little plazas around every corner... first we stopped at puerta del sol... right after that we got separated when i was taking some pictures so i ended up spending the day by myself... without planning it i found the museum devoted to the history of Madrid... i loved it... the highlight was going to the palacio real, for free with my card too :-)... its incredibly portentous rooms covered from floor to ceiling with every conceivable type of art: paintings, sculptures, furniture, etc.

on the 22nd we stepped back in time visiting a medieval little town an hour away from Madrid called Chinchon... a day of wandering aimlessly in narrow streets where life seems to go a the same pace as it did 1000 years ago, taking away the tourists cameras and shopping bags of course... on our way back to the cats hostel we decided to go to the Reina Sofia museum, because not only it has an amazing modern art exhibit, but it was free from 2 to 9 pm... it was unbelievable to witness the originality of Picasso, the audacity of Dali, but most of all the simplicity of Miro...

on Sunday the 23rd, we went to El Rastro, the biggest open air market in Europe... very interesting... people selling and buying everything, from antiques to gas masks... in the afternoon i took two naps to recover from so much walking and exploring...

the 24th: Toledo... a walled city with Roman, Jewish, Muslim and Christian edifications... it is difficult to describe the sense of awe i felt as i walked around its ancient narrow streets where you have to step into a door to make room for a car to drive by, since there are no sidewalks... we spent 6 hours trying to figure out where everything was... i had a map and i am usually pretty good at finding my way, but not here, but at every turn there was a beautiful building or plaza or little street awaiting, so it was okay... as we were walking back to the train station at around 7 pm, the most loving moon was over the horizon bid us farewell: an amber perfect circle against a dark blue sky...the perfect ending to a magical day...

my last day in madrid, dec 25th, was a lovely sunny day... i went toparque el retiro with jena, john, and another girl who were staying atthe hostel... we walked to the park and on the way took pictures atthe puerta de alcala... once in the park we sat on the steps facing an artificial lake to chat, people watch and enjoy the warmth of the sun... michelle and daryl were to meet us there but the park was hugeand we never found each other...

on the 26th they took the train togranada on the way to morocco and i took the train to valencia... aswe walked to the train station michelle realized i had 10 minutes tocatch my train and told me to get ahead, i said bye and hurried up... i got to the train 3 minutes before departure, they close the entrance 2 minutes before the train leaves, so i almost lost my train...hahahah.. the trains are so punctual that the ticket says that if thetrain is 5 minutes late they reimburse your money... impressive huh?

i spent 2 nights in valencia... valencia´s city of the arts andsciences is a complex of futuristic modern buildings housing some ofthe best museums and the biggest aquarium in europe... the day i arrived i visited the oceanographic... a state of the art aquarium with every imaginable sea creature from sharks to walrures to beluga whales... the next day i spent 5 hours at the science museum... both visits were lots of fun and "educational" hahaha... i got many ideas for my science class back in cairo as when i go back we begin the oceans unit... hehe...

on the 28th i took a bus to reus, an hour and a half north ofbarcelona, where ingrid, the sister of a guatemalan lady i met incairo, was waiting for me and kindly let me stay at her flat for 5nights... thanks ingrid :-)... reus was my base to explore barcelona...

the 29th and 30th ingrid and i walked all over barcelona in search of iconic places such as the buildings designed by gaudi, weended our exploration at sagrada familia church, his marterpiece... ialso wanted to see the camp nou stadium, home of the FC Barcelona, my favorite team...! as we approached the stadium on sunday morning inoticed people going in the little stadium next to the camp nou,inmediately i realized the reason: the team was training!!! yeah!!! i got to see ronaldinho and company at practice!!! :-D

another cool thing was that gaudi was born in reus, where i was staying, and they just opened a gaudi center with displays of his life, models and work... i got in free with my handy teacher card again, hehe...on the 1st i went to tarragona, 15 minutes from reus, where i took a lovely walk on the beach and thanked life for the year that had just ended and all its adventures... from patagonia in chile and argentina, where i began 2007, to bolivia, to guatemala, to egypt to spain...gratitude filled my heart as i watched the sunset in tarragona...on the 2nd i took a train to barcelona to catch a bus to andorra... onthe 30th i decided to not go to paris as i felt in my heart that paris was a place i wanted to visit with someone special... andorra, a tiny country tucked between the spain and france, is one of those uniqueplaces not many people know about... it was really cool, i loved it...the whole country is duty free!! so their economy depends on tourism and commerce... now is the ski season and many people were there for that... i ended up buying an external hard drive and a memory card formy camera for the same price i would have paid in the US, since in cairo they are double that... :-)

on the 3rd i took a bus to zaragoza with its impressive cathedral...the city was founded by ceasar augustus back in the year 14 AD... istayed in a little hotel a block from the roman theater... i wanderedthe streets and enjoyed a city visited mostly by pilgrims to the cathedral...

on the 5th i traveled to vitoria, an hour south of bilbao, vitoria wasanother lovely unplanned city in my itinerary... after walking foralmost an hour looking for the hostel with my heavy backpack i feltfor a moment i was going to have to pay 35 or more euros for a night since lonely planet does not list many budget hotels in this smallcity... i decided to stop by an internet cafe and luckily found a hostel with a lovely lady who welcomed me as if i were her grandson...she gave me a discount and i only had to pay 22 euros... the day i arrived was cloudy and rainy, but sunday was truly a sun day... it wasbeautiful to walk this medieval town where most streets in thehistoric center are for pedestrians only...

today, the 7th, a grey day typical of winter, i traveled an hour north to bilbao to go to the guggenheim tomorrow and a castle the nextday... the youth hostel here is impressive... spotless rooms, freeinternet, breakfast included for only 15 euros a night in a dorm with6 beds...spain, the first country i travel in europe, has been everything i expected and more... it was awesome exploring spain